Who are called as followers of ‘eternal religion’ or Sanatan Dharma?
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I am trying to redefine followers of ‘eternal religion’ as per OSHO’s definition of CITIZEN OF INDIA and using the word mutation from COVID-19 virus’s excellent ability(?) to mutate in positive way. So that we can take good lesson and get benefitted from this pandemic to start our journey for discovery of truth within before being caught by this mutated version of the COVID-19 virus. With lots of blessings. Sanantan means Eternal. From the very first human being this quest to know ‘Who am I?’ begun and it will remain till the last human being get enlightened after discovering his true reality or soul. This eternal or never dying nature of the quest is called as Sanatan Dharma by mystics of the East.
This eternal quest is called as Sanatan Dharma or eternal religion of human being. The East pioneered in discovery of our true nature like the west in Science. Great research was carried out in this field in the east so few people started thinking that they are the saviour of this eternal religion-which is their misconception. It was corrected rightly by Osho in his discourses and personal meetings too- that the eternal quest is going to remain eternal because it is the true nature of every human being.
If it can be saved by few or it could be destroyed by anyone or group of people by Herculean effort then it is not called as eternal.
But mystics have realised that not only it is eternal but unknowable too, no one is able to know it completely the quest may end with leaving the body by a mystic but it remains a mystery till that very moment. If a mystic cannot know it then how can a normal person can know it? If we can not know it fully how we are going to save it? So if they are saying that they are the saviour of sanatan dharma then definitely they have a limited version or distorted knowledge of it. And instead of saving Sanatan Dharma they are fully relaxed that nothing harm is going to be done by anyone of them because they are the saviour. This way they think that whatever they are doing is right. And justifying it too through their such vicious, harmful and divisive acts in the name of eternal religion.
Ref: India my love, Chapter 2, The universal dream, p#8 or Phir amrit ki boond padi, chapter 5.
Osho says:
“India is not a piece of land or some political entity or a part of some historical facts. It is not a mad race for money, power, position and prestige.
India is a longing, a thirst to attain truth-the truth that resides in every heartbeat of ours, the truth that is lying asleep under the layer of our consciousness, the truth that is ours but yet forgotten. It’s remembrance, it’s reclamation, is India.
‘Amritasya putrah’, Oh, son of the immortal – only those who have heard this call are truly CITIZENS OF INDIA.
Nobody else becomes a CITIZEN OF INDIA.
You can be born anywhere on the earth- in any country, in any century; (like Pythagoras came here 2500 years back in search of the truth, so he is a CITIZEN OF INDIA) in the past or in the future: if your search is the search for the inner, you are a son (or daughter) of India.
For me, India and spirituality are synonymous.
In this sense, the sons of India are in each nook and corner of this earth.
And those who have been born in India accidentally, as long as they have not felt a passion in the search for the deathless, they have no right to be called CITIZEN OF INDIA.
All those who are on the path of search for the eternal truth are ‘CITIZEN OF INDIA’ as per OSHO and I wish to further clarify its definition as per my experiences till date.
So all the persons who satisfy the definition of ‘CITIZEN OF INDIA’ given above by OSHO are true followers of ‘eternal religion’ or सनातन धर्म irrespective of their religion, location on planet, country and colour etc. Truth is eternal and it survives by way of mutation into another form by giving birth to a new religion or new way of life through an enlightened person.
Only that person can realise the truth ‘as it is’-who is ready to mutate into another version of himself. For that the present version has to be modified through reading books, meditation and experimenting. Because once you realise the truth, you become truth, which means a Buddha. And to survive truth needs to mutate, so a person needs to learn how to mutate himself then only truth could survive through him. Simple.
In his talks on Yoga: The Science of the soul, #4 Everything is interdependent
Osho says:
The first question: Question 1 WHILE TALKING ABOUT WISDOM, INSIGHTS, AND ENLIGHTENMENT, YOU OFTEN SAY ’WE IN THE EAST’. PLEASE EXPLAIN THE MEANING OF THIS PHRASE. THE EAST HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE EAST. The East is just symbolic of the inner space, of the inner world of consciousness. East is symbolic of religion, West is symbolic of science. So even if in the East a person attains to a scientific attitude, he becomes Western. He may live in the East, he may be born in the East – that doesn’t matter. Or, whenever a person attains to religious consciousness – he may be born in the West, it makes no difference – he begins to be a part of the East. Jesus, Francis, Eckhart, Boehme, Wittgenstein, even Henry Thoreau, Emerson, Swedenborg – they are all Eastern. The East is symbolic, always remember. I am not concerned with geography. So whenever I say ’we in the East’, I mean all who have come to know the inner reality. And whenever I say ’you in the West’, I simply mean the scientific mind, the technological mind, the Aristotelian mind: rational, mathematical, scientific, but not intuitive; objective but not subjective. Once you understand it, then there will be no problem. All the great religions were born in the East. The West has not yet produced a great religion. Christianity, Judaism, Mohammedanism, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Tao: they were all produced in the East. It is something like a feminine mind, and it has to be so because on every level there is a meeting of yin and yang, the male and the female. The circle has to be divided. The East functions as a feminine part, the West functions as a male part.
The male mind is aggressive; science is aggressive. The feminine mind is receptive; religion is receptive. Science tries hard. It forces nature to reveal its secrets. Religion simply waits, prays and waits, invokes but does not force; calls, cries, weeps, persuades, almost seduces nature to reveal its mysteries and secrets, but the effort is feminine. Hence, meditation. When the effort is male, aggressive, it is like the laboratory: all sorts of instruments to torture nature, to force nature to reveal its secrets, to hand over the key. The male mind is an attack. The male mind is a rapist mind, and science is a rape. Religion is the mind of a lover; it can wait. It can wait infinitely. So whenever I say ’we in the East’, I mean all, wherever they were born, wherever they were brought up. They are spread all over the world. The East is spread all over the world, just as the West is spread all over the world. When somebody from India gets a Nobel prize for his scientific discoveries, he is a Western mind. He’s no more part of the East, he’s no more part of the Eastern tradition. He has changed his home, he has changed his address. Now he has fallen in line, in the queue with Aristotle. The East is within you, and we call it ’East’ because East is nothing but the rising sun: awareness, consciousness, alertness. So never be confused whenever I say ’we in the East’. I don’t mean the countries that are in the East, no. I mean the consciousness that is Eastern. I don’t mean India when I use the word ’India’. It is a bigger thing for me. It is not just on the map as other countries. It is simply symbolic of the tremendous energy that India has put into the inner search. So wherever you are born, if you start moving towards God, you become Indian. Suddenly, your pilgrimage towards India starts. You may come to India or you may not come; that is not the point. But you have started your pilgrimage. And the day you realize, suddenly you will become part of Gautam Buddha, Mahavir the Jaina, the Upanishadic seers, the rishis of the Vedas, Krishna, Patanjali. Suddenly, you are no more part of the technological mind, the logical mind; you have become supra-logical.
About this experience of realising the truth as it is, Osho says:
We don’t know ourselves, and we think that we know others. We are trying to know others without knowing ourselves. This is impossible. If I am ignorant of my own self, how can I know anything else in the world? The very center is ignorant, the very person is in darkness, so how can I discover light anywhere else? – it has not been discovered in me!
The first point of discovery, the first explosion of light, must be, can only be in me.
Then it spreads, then it goes out and out and out.
This first moment of transformation is self-knowing.
Then like a pebble thrown in a lake, the circles go on spreading and spreading. Then they will go on up to the bank.
The explosion is in the self, but then the explosion goes on encircling the whole world. It goes to the very end, and then it becomes divine knowledge.
First the explosion is self-knowledge, then the explosion goes, goes, goes to the infinite and becomes divine knowledge. Self-knowledge is the door, is the opening towards the divine.
But we do not know ourselves, and we think we know even God. We debate about it. we struggle about it, we discuss it, we confute, refute, convince… we say this is right, this is wrong, this religion is right, that religion is wrong, this scripture is accurate, that scripture is not accurate, we go on debating and discussing things for which, in ourselves there is no opening.
The opening comes through the explosion of the self.
One thing more to be understood: The explosion is the explosion of your ego also.
When you know, when you come to know yourself – this is a miracle and this is a mystery – the self remains only in ignorance. The self is part of the ignorance. We say self-knowledge, but really when the knowing comes, the self goes. There is no self then. Then there is only knowing. Then you are not.
Then there is only existence, then there is only being. That being is atman.
Atman is not the self, the ego.
One thing to be understood: You cannot know yourself, because the moment you come to know, you are not there, only the knowing remains. And that knowing without an ego, goes to the very endless end. Because there is no boundary now.
Ref: Early talks, Chapter 2, No mission, No message.
Awareness meditation is the way worked for me, may be you too find it suitable otherwise Dynamic meditation is for most of the people. There are 110 other meditation techniques discovered by Indian Mystic Gorakhnath about 500years before and further modified by Osho that one can experiment and the suitable one could be practiced in routine life.
Osho International Online (OIO) provides facility to learn these from your home,
1. through Osho Meditation Day @€20.00 per person. OIO rotate times through three timezones NY,Berlin and Mumbai. You can prebook according to the convenient time for you.
2. There is OSHO Evening Meeting streaming which can be accessed every day at local time starting 6:40 pm (of which Osho says that he wants his people to view it all over the world and these days it is possible) and 16 of the meditations mostly with video instructions and so much more on OSHO.com/meditate.
3. There is a 7 days Free Trial also for people who would like to first try it out.
This is an opportunity for learning and knowing Osho through these sannyasins who lived in his presence and brought to life his words in best possible quality in all formats.
Disciples of Jesus left him alone in last minutes but Osho’s disciples remained with him till he left his body willingly after working, till last day, for all of us to get enlightened. Jesus tried hard till last minute, before being caught, to teach meditation to his disciples. As per Saint John’s Gospel:- Jesus used word ‘Sit’ to transfer his meditative energy to them and went on to pray God, but on returning he found them sleeping. He tried two times again but in vain.
Even today Zen people use word ‘Sit’ for meditation in their saying ‘Sit silently, do nothing, season comes and the grass grows by itself green’.
Hi ….. I write my comments from my personal experiences of my inner journey. This post may include teachings of Mystics around the world that I found worth following even today. For more about me and to connect with me on social media platforms, have a look at my linktree website for connecting with my social media links, or subscribe my YouTube channel and/or listen to the podcasts etc.
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